You're going to need to bundle up for this stroll, but come on along, it's going to be a blast.

I have had the good fortune to view the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade first hand, but it's been many years since I braved the crowd and the cold, but this year I'm going to be there.
Afterall it's the 80th anniversary of this grand tradition....so meet me on the corner of 56th Street and Broadway and you bring the hot chocolate!


Parades are more than mere spectacles. They are windows into the cultures that produce them. Every element of a parade, from its planning to the array of floats and performers it presents, reveals something about its context.

I feel that the Macy's Parade is to many of us a source of comfort, of something that was there when we were growing up and something that we can always return to and know it's going to be there, year after year.


In the spirit of the Roaring 1920s, employees of Macy's department store in 1924 organized the first Thanksgiving Day parade in Manhattan. The parade was originally named the Macy's Christmas Parade, and it featured vibrant costumes, along with floats, bands, clowns, and live animals from the Central Park Zoo.


The parade was such a huge success, that it quickly became an annual event. Three years later in 1927, the first balloon -- a huge, inflatable, Felix the Cat -- took the place of the real lions.

In 1928, the parade included helium-filled balloons that were released above the city in a grand finale, but they unexpectedly burst above Manhattan's skyscrapers. So the following year, the balloons were redesigned with safety valves that allow the balloons to float for several days. The balloons also had a return address on them, offering rewards for the people who returned them.


The only interruption of the parade was during World War II. From 1942 to 1944, Macy's donated the balloons to the war effort, when rubber was a rare and much-needed resource. When the parade resumed in 1945, it drew its biggest crowd at that time to date -- 2 million viewers.

The parade was first televised for the first time in that year as well.


Through the 1950s and 1960s, more famous faces joined the parade, including the Mickey Mouse balloon in 1934, Uncle Sam, Superman, Popeye, Snoopy, Kermit the Frog, Underdog, and Bullwinkle. My favorite is Woody Woodpecker.


Not only are there spectacular balloons, but there are huge floats. The floats are designed in a former candy factory in Hoboken, N.J. The floats - which can be up to 40-feet tall -- are designed so they can be folded and transported to New York via the Lincoln Tunnel on Thanksgiving eve.


The parade also signify's a big event, Santa Claus is coming to town! The movie "Miracle on 34th Street", opens up with the parade and how Santa Claus rode in the parade.

As a child we knew that the parade would be over once we saw Santa, but we were so excited by his sleigh that we couldn't possibly be sad when the parade came to an end.

Today, more than 2.5 million people line the streets of Manhattan, and another 44 million watch the parade on NBC for what now is considered one of the most spectacular parades in the world.

This year make that 2.5 million and one!

Have a Glorious Thanksgiving!!!!





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